Multiple colonization with carbapenem-resistant Gram-negative bacteria acquired in India and transferred to Switzerland

Abstract

Sir, Antimicrobial resistance is a serious and growing threat for global public health. In the European Union, Iceland and Norway, infections caused by antibiotic-resistant organisms are estimated to be responsible of 25,000 deaths per year [1]. A Swiss expert group on infectious diseases and hospital hygiene (Swissnoso) estimates that approximately 70,000 nosocomial infections occurs yearly, among which, nearly 2.9% end fatally for the patients [2]. In addition, attributable mortality to multidrug-resistant bacteria, mostly Gramnegatives, has been recently reported from Switzerland [3]. The most clinically-significant and emerging resistant determinants are: (1) the extended-spectrum β-lactamases (ESBL) that confer resistance to all β-lactams except cephamycins and carbapenems, (2) the carbapenemases that confer resistance to virtually all β-lactams, and (3) the 16S rRNA methylases that confer resistance to all aminoglycosides by methylation of the aminoglycosides target, namely the 16S ribosomal RNA. We report here the colonization/infection of a patient hospitalized in India with six unrelated multidrug-resistant Gram-negative isolates who was transferred to Switzerland.

Temporal and regional incidence of carbapenemase-producing Enterobacterales, Switzerland, 2013 to 2018

“…In Switzerland, the number of local CPE outbreaks and imported cases has also increased (e.g. [14][15][16]) and based on these indications, the Swiss Federal Office of Public Health defined CPE as notifiable pathogens in 2016. However, no systematically collected epidemiological Swiss data have been published until now.…”